Oko Forests is an environmentally conscious for-profit company whose mission is to boost the incomes of small-holder farmers in Ghana and improve cassava productivity. Oko Forests processes cassava into high quality cassava flour and is seeking to improve environmental outcomes and incomes by deploying agroforestry practices to thousands of farms across the country. Cassava will be grown among indigenous tress, which will also supply timber and NTFPs. As such, Oko Forests promotes the decoupling of deforestation from the expansion of food production systems in Ghana.

The challenge was to help Oko integrate environmental and social factors into it's business model.

Alongside Oko, Altus Impact worked with the Swiss Sustainability Management School (SUMAS) to analyze, using InVEST models from the Natural Capital Project, how cassava agroforestry systems in Ghana can contribute to carbon storage, erosion control, smallholder income and wider ecosystem resilience.

The results of the study have enabled Oko Forests to integrate social and environmental factors into their business model and to ultimately enable further interest by impact investors.